The present invention relates to flash memory storage devices and, more particularly, to a USB card adapted for use as a business or ID card with robust exterior graphics and print indicia imparted by a novel thermal transfer, and further adapted for distributed digital information protection and control such as, for example, medical and other providers that employs a patient-carried data card with large-capacity record storage, ensuring confidentiality by allowing others to have access to the patient's selective records via computer, in accordance with a hierarchical permissions policy.
A wide variety of memory cards now exist each with different capacities, access speeds, formats, interfaces, and connectors. Most of these are relegated to particular form factors and are not compatible with credit card applications. However, smart cards are widely used as financial transaction credit cards, security access cards, electronic toll collection cards, debit cards, and the like. Smart card technology allows data to be stored in a memory element included in a smart card contact conforming to the ISO 7816 smart card standard.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,488 by Eberhardt issued Nov. 3, 1998 shows a computer system and method for storing medical histories using a smartcard to store data. The smartcard is convenient, about the size of a credit card, and any new medical data about the individual is simply added to the smartcard. Each time the patient visits a provider, the entire medical history of the individual can be easily retrieved. The smartcard makes it possible for an individual's medical history to be “read” by a computer, displayed on the computer's monitor, printed, or transmitted. When the individual is examined by a physician all observations are added. This allows individuals to carry on their person a complete and consolidated medical history of themselves. However, the memory element of conventional smart cards stores only a small amount of data, and the smartcard is unsuitable for large records such as radiography image files. In addition, privacy is maintained simply by encrypting the patient identifier to preclude unauthorized persons from accessing a given person's medical history. The patent fails to suggest any scheme to maintain passwords or other authorization to access the data, and it does not account for the needs of the various attending physicians, residents, nurses, etc., all who may have differing rights to view and/or change the medical history
Flash memory is an alternative non-volatile computer memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It is a technology that is primarily used in USB flash drives and uses a specific type of EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) that is erased and programmed in large blocks. However, conventional flash memory cards require a specialized adapter or reader, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) or USB2. Thus, to maximize on-board memory manufacturers are clearly working hard to integrate the connector/interface in a credit card form factor. SanDisk is perhaps the most aggressive, with many credit card form factor flash memory cards.
For example, United States Patent Application 20060278723 to Raz et al. (mSystems Ltd) published Dec. 14, 2006 shows a USB card device with integral USB contacts such that, when flexed, bent or folded in, the inherent resilience of the card material provides a force for pressing the set of contacts against the electrical contacts of a USB receptacle.
PCT Patent Application Publication No. WO 2005/124932 to Atsmon et al. discloses numerous rectangular credit-card-type ID devices with USB plug projecting connectors.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,883,718 to Le et al. (Imation) issued Apr. 26, 2005 shows a credit card memory card with USS host connector protruding from the card for direct coupling of the memory card to a computer. The drawings show one corner of the card configured as a protruding USB connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,344,072 to Gonzalez et al. (SanDisk) issued Mar. 18, 2008 shows a credit card flash memory card with a pivoting USB connector that can easily be plugged into a host computing device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,381,076 by Bychkov et al. (SanDisk) issued Jun. 3, 2008 shows a credit card smart card with USB connector in a pull-out plug arrangement. The plug arrangement includes a first plug portion including a plurality of electric contacts and a second plug portion. At least part of the plug arrangement is selectively displaceable relative to a remainder of the body, and upon pulling out the plug opens into first and second plug portions having sufficient thickness to mate with the electrical connector.
United States Patent Application 20030155425 by Lynch, Jeffrey Thomas published Aug. 21, 2003 shows a smart card (10) with both flash and CD, DVD or like storage. United States Patent Application 20060180674 by Margalit et al. (Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd.) published Aug. 17, 2006 shows a smart card with USB connector and biometric sensor such as a fingerprint reader for sampling a fingerprint of a user for authenticating the user.
United States Patent Application 20040129787 by Saito et al. (IVI Smart Technologies, inc) published Jul. 8, 2004 shows a secure smart card with biometric verification and an integral Global Positioning Satellite (“GPS”) receiver 212 which can provide useful information about the current location of the reader and card at or about the time a particular transaction is taking place. In particular, the location data from GPS receiver 212 may be used to disable (either permanently or temporarily) the reader and/or the card in the event either is removed to a location at which their use is not authorized.
Flash memory devices are not traditionally used as business or ID cards. This is in part due to inherent problems with the form factor, problems with imprinting lasting text and graphics, and problems with security of data resident in the card.
One effort to solve the form factor and security problems is U.S. Pat. No. 7,334,725 to Dan (San Disk) issued Feb. 26, 2008, which shows a flash memory business card with two opposing slits defining a bendable portion within the housing that includes the connecting mechanism. The scope of the invention also suggests configuring the non-volatile memory to allow only an authorized party to access personal information stored in the nonvolatile memory, but fails to extrapolate how.
Data security is a perilous proposition in some contexts, where laws or policies impose strict confidentiality requirements on some shared information. For example, in the medical context doctors and health care providers need a reliable and secure approach to assembling comprehensive patient records from distributed sources. The sources may include multiple provider facilities (clinics and hospitals each of which maintains their own patient database, and cache database changing each time the provider is visited by a particular patient. Outright sharing of the data is difficult due to the security requirements imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). Consequently, there is a great need for a reliable method of consolidating and processing an individual's data amongst diverse provider networks that can assemble relevant patient information despite the diversity in their classification and/or coding, and which will not compromise the requisite confidentiality of the patient.
Generally, access to information can be controlled in any number of ways, for example, by passwords, authentication tokens, a server-based authentication certification system, or any combination of the foregoing. However, with conventional techniques, once access to a file is granted to a user, the access to the information contained in file is virtually without limit. The user can, for example, modify the file, copy the file, display the file, print the file, e-mail the file, and/or transfer the file to another information system via a network. After the file is distributed outside of the immediate control, security for the distributed file is left to the discretion of those who obtain a copy.
It would, therefore, be greatly advantageous to provide a secure USB business and/or personal ID card that employs a large-capacity personal record store, a robust security framework for maintaining confidentiality by allowing others to have access at a remote location to the full set of records via computer, in accordance with a hierarchical permissions policy, all with a true business card form factor emblazoned with robust and vivid color text and graphics.